AND
THE FINAL HOLOCAUST
ALSO CALLED
THE ANNIHILATION OF ISRAEL

In recent months, the voice of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, has been heard demanding the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jews. His message is more than the usual Middle Eastern bombast intended to impress Muslims and should be seen in the context of his Shia eschatology. Eschatology may be defined as an area of religious speculation or belief concerned with the final events in the history of mankind or the ultimate destiny of humanity frequently referred to as the “end of days” or the “end of the world”. Jews, Christians and Muslims have all dabbled in end-time speculations. Jewish eschatology gave rise to Christian eschatology in the early days of the Church and Muhammad drew much of his eschatological inspiration from the Christian heretics whom he had encountered in Arabia in the 7th century.

All eschatologies view the end of the world as a time of disasters, natural and man-made, such as plagues, famines, wars, floods, earthquakes, etc. which will herald the arrival of a savior or mahdi who will banish the enemies of the true believers and set the world aright before the “day of judgment” when all mankind, living and dead, will be judged according to their merits and the good will be sent to paradise while the fate of the evil will be eternal damnation.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Shia co-religionists believe in the imminent return of the Twelfth or Hidden Imam [1] who will be ushered in by an apocalyptic conflagration following which the true Muslims (Shia) will prevail over all others; all infidel religions will be destroyed, and the world will be re-ordered in a new caliphate wherein true Islam led by the Mahdi will be the standard of peace and justice until the “qiyamah” or day of judgment arrives.

The condition precedent to the beginning of the end is the destruction of the Jews. For our readers we cite below the pertinent hadiths [2] relied on by true believers in support of their contentions.

The destruction of Israel which we call THE FINAL HOLOCAUST is the sine qua non to summoning the Twelfth Imam from hiding. This objective explains the words and actions of Ahmadinejad and the Iranian regime in recent times. First, Iranian policy seeks to establish Shia hegemony over the Muslims of the Middle East including custody of the shrines in Meccah and Medinah. Toward that end, Iran has embarked on the promotion of strife in Lebanon by encouraging, training and arming its co-religionists, Hezbollah, under the leadership of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, as its vanguard to attack Israel in order to test its resolve and defense capabilities and to determine the extent of the commitment of the US, now bogged down in a war in Iraq [3], toward Israel. Second, the Iranian government is proceeding with its development of nuclear weapons, undeterred by concerns or threats from the US, the UN, NATO, the EU, etc. as the surest means by which it will be able to wipe Israel off of the map and provoke the return of the Hidden Imam. The possibility or probability that Israel and/or the US might strike Iran preemptively and vaporize it to the bedrock is no restraint. Muslims believe that they will prevail over the infidels in any event – a belief as certain as any of the laws of the universe. Moreover, for them the possibility of death in the cause of their god does not restrain them, for such a death is the noblest demise that a Muslim may endure; it admits the martyr immediately into paradise circumventing the risks of the day of judgment.

CONCLUSION

Eschatology is necessarily speculative, based essentially on beliefs about future events rather than on facts which might lead to reasonable conclusions. Some readers may find it difficult to accept the notion that a person who lived and apparently died in the 9th century would re-emerge in the 21st to direct the lives of so many people, but we must be prepared to accept the fact that those beliefs, not ours, inspire the policies of Iran and its Shia Arab allies. For 14 centuries the Sunnis have ruled and the Shia have suffered. The latter now believe that their day is approaching albeit at the end of time. Given that premise we would be well advised to prepare for its implications and for the promised conflagration as causes for serious concern among civilized nations. As for the Jews, the First Holocaust (1940 – 1945) has surely convinced them that their enemies mean what they say and should prompt them to gird the loins for the coming struggle for survival. The FINAL HOLOCAUST will not be a mere spasm of the religious fanaticism on the part of the enemies of the Jews but their enemies’ long contemplated plan and purpose. [4]

FOOTNOTES

1) Shortly after Muhammad’s death in the 7th century, his followers began fighting among themselves about how the successors to Muhammad would be selected to lead the faithful. One group insisted that Muhammad’s successor, the commander of the faithful or caliph, should be chosen from among the members of Muhammad’s tribe. These came to be called “Sunnis”. Another group called the Party of Ali (Shiat Ali) demanded that Muhammad’s successor be limited to his direct descendants through his daughter, Fatima, and her husband, Ali, who was also Muhammad’s cousin. Imam Ali as well as his son, Imam Hussein, and all of the succeeding Imams came to a bad end at the hands of the Sunnis. Following Hussein’s death, the breach between Sunnis and Shia became permanent. When the 11th Imam became aware that his enemies were close, he hid his son, a child called Muhammad al Mahdi, in a well from which he was later transferred to a cave beneath the mosque of Samarra in Iraq from which he then disappeared (or was killed). Rather than admit that Muhammad’s direct line of descendants had died out and thereby challenge the Shia’s very notion of legitimacy, a myth was created holding that the Twelfth Imam had not really died but was hiding from his enemies and would someday re-emerge to lead the much maligned Shia to victory over their Sunni enemies. Today in the 21st century the Shia are still waiting for their Hidden Imam whom they call al Mahdi (savior), but believe that the time of his re-appearance is fast approaching. Historically the Sunnis have regarded the Shia as heretics, i. e. no longer Muslims, and the Shia have returned the compliment. Any Muslim regarded by other Muslims as a heretic is fit only to be killed and expropriated.

2) HADITH (pl. AHADITH) means tradition. The Hadiths are a large collection of sayings and events attributed to Muhammad by his family and friends. They are inspired and authoritative only a little less than the Quran itself. There are four versions of Hadiths accepted by most Muslims and the Shia also have some of their own.

3) The war in Iraq removed the major Sunni obstacle to Iranian Shia ambitions. It also liberated the majority Shia population from Sunni control and placed it firmly in Iran’s camp. Thus the war can be seen as serving in effect the simple purpose of advancing Iran’s interests in furtherance of its eschatological visions.

4) For more information about Shia Islam, see www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Spa/7220/tab.html,
REACHING FOR POWER by Yitzhak Nakash, ISBN: 0691125295
THE SHIA REVIVAL by Vali Nasr.